UFC bantamweight champion [autotag]Sean O’Malley[/autotag] relishes the opportunity to go head-to-head with [autotag]Canelo Alvarez[/autotag].
On the same night O’Malley (17-1 MMA, 10-1 UFC) defends his title against [autotag]Merab Dvalishvili[/autotag] (17-4 MMA, 10-2 UFC) in the UFC 306 main event at Sphere in Las Vegas, Alvarez (61-2-2) defends his WBA, WBC and WBO super middleweight titles against Edgar Berlanga (22-0) at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
One of the biggest stars in the UFC, O’Malley wants to ensure that it’s his name everyone is talking about after Sept. 14.
“I’m so f*cking excited for this fight,” O’Malley said on his “TimboSugaShow” podcast. “I wasn’t actually very excited for the Aljo fight. I was stressed about that fight, just because my rib (injury), my training camp wasn’t the best. It was good for what we had, and then it’s like, this is hard. This fight, I’m feeling good as f*ck. I love this matchup. He’s got a 10-fight winning streak. It’s a big fight. It’s at the Sphere, it’s in competition with boxing, which is just kind of an extra little layer.
“When it comes to Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, who are they talking about? Are they talking about Canelo? Are they talking about the boxing fight? Or are they talking about the absolute dominating, beautiful, masterful, masterclass performance that I put on Merab and the viral knockout that came with it? Or are they talking about a 36-minute Canelo boxing fight that was kind of fire? That’s what excites me. It’s the competition of who are they talking about Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. Who stole the headlines? Me.”
O’Malley, who dethroned Dvalishvili’s training partner Aljamain Sterling with a viral knockout at UFC 292, notched his first title defense with a shutout of Marlon Vera at UFC 299 in March.
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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 306.